2020 at a glance

Mama Cash gave

229
grants

to
195
women’s, girls’, trans people’s and
intersex people’s groups & women’s funds

in
67

countries
worldwide


for a total of
5559845

2020 showed us that deep change is possible. To value care and provide mutual aid, reduce air travel and let the planet breathe, work together for the collective good and prioritise life and relationships over profit. Significant changes that can lead to a feminist-driven ‘new normal’ dawning on the other side of the crisis.

Women Environs in Zambia
Lokiaka Community Development Centre, Nigeria
Ghofrane Binous, featured in the IDFA documentary She had a dream. Credit: Cinétévé ARTE
Fearless Collective, India

Grantmaking and
Accompaniment

Mama Cash is proud to lift up the work of feminist activists who, in dealing with the impact of the pandemic, are finding new ways to organise and mobilise their communities. We launched the ‘Recovery & Resilience Fund’ to provide grantee-partners with additional financial resources to address the crisis. With support from the Dutch Postcode Lottery, we concluded the CreatEquality project, funding feminist initiatives at the crossroads of art and activism. The Fearless Collective, for instance, is a South Asia-based art project that reclaims public spaces by creating beauty as an act of resistance.

Grants per portfolio

26
Body
39
Money- Environmental Justice
27
Money-Labour Rights
36
Voice
24
Women's Funds
6
Opportunity
2
Accompaniment
40
Spark Fund
29
Red Umbrella Fund

Amounts per portfolio

19%
1089500
Body
14%
754986
Money-Environmental Justice
13%
690000
Money- Labour Rights
18%
1032000
Voice
19%
1067000
Women's Funds
1%
50000
Opportunity
2%
98209
Accompaniment
1%
66150
Spark Fund
13%
712000
Red Umbrella Fund

Mama Cash is committed to sharing power with the movements we support. So we are shifting grantmaking decisions from our staff back to the communities we aim to serve. In 2020, we launched the invitation for individuals to join the Community Committee that will make the grant decisions for our next grantmaking window.

€288.206 out of the total of the above grants was dedicated directly to Covid-19 related activities. Next to that Mama Cash contributed €75,000 to the Global Resilience Fund for Girls and Young Women.

Women’s Funds

To continue and extend our support to women’s funds, Mama Cash launched the Solidarity Fund, a special pot of funding reserved for women’s funds to channel wherever they think some additional funds are needed. The fund was designed by a community of women’s funds, incorporating participatory grantmaking principles, as a more equitable, just, transparent and accountable form of grantmaking to women’s funds. With this new fund, Mama Cash seeks to share power with women’s funds, allowing them to make the funding decisions that are best for the women’s funds community and will best strengthen the feminist funding ecosystem.

Feminist movements play a critical role in securing environmental justice globally. This is one conclusion of the external evaluation of our five-year Global Alliance for Green and Gender Action (GAGGA) partnership with women’s funds from around the world. It shows how grassroots organisations have gained experience in using legal and regulatory frameworks to protect the environment and women’s rights. The Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs will continue to support GAGGA with renewed funding (2021-2025).

Mama Cash Feminist Festival, March 2020, Amsterdam. Credit: Claire Bontje
Chola Contravisual, Peru
Asociación de Profesionales del Sexo, Spain
Women Initiative for Sustainable Empowerment and Equality, Nigeria

Influencing the
Donor Community

We continued to use what we learn from grantee-partners to advocate with other donors to fund feminist activism. During the pandemic, we worked to ensure that funders’ responses to COVID-19 were gender-sensitive. We also contributed to The Global Resilience Fund for Girls and Young Women, a funding partnership that has resourced 120 girls’ and young women’s groups in 67 countries during the pandemic.

Feminist movements are key drivers of transformative and lasting change. The case for WHY they need more and better funding is increasingly heard. AWID and Mama Cash, in the context of the Count Me In! feminist consortium launched the report “Moving More Money to the Drivers of Change” on HOW funders can resource feminist movements better. Meanwhile, CMI!, led by Mama Cash, secured five years of continued funding (2021-2025) from the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs, which will allow us to continue providing significant resourcing to feminist movements worldwide.

2020 Financials

Our Income

11%
1684364
Individuals
18%
2074826
Private foundations
11%
1704010
Third parties (Dutch Postcode Lottery)
26%
3933589
Governments
8%
29237
Other income
27%
4092250
Income for CMI! partners
A total income of
14148276

Our Expenditures

59%
8967612
Core strategies
27%
4160631
Expenditure for CMI! partners
9%
1405164
Income acquisition costs
5%
735554
Management and administration
Total expenditures of
15268960

The bulk of the difference between income and expenditures is due to multi-year donations received in 2020.